1. Technical Field
The inventive concept relates to methods of fabricating semiconductor devices. More particularly, the inventive concept relates to a semiconductor device including a gate electrode and to a method of fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
The fabricating of semiconductor devices entails forming various patterns using a mask. An example of such a patterning process is the etching of a silicon-containing conductive layer to form a conductive pattern such as a pattern of gate electrodes. The patterning process is followed by a deposition process in which an interlayer dielectric is deposited to fill the space between the gate electrodes. However, when the silicon-containing conductive layer is etched, byproducts of the etching process are produced on the mask. A void or a seam may be formed in the interlayer dielectric due to the etch byproducts. The void or the seam can degrade the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor device.